North America

Edmonton's oldest craft brewery, and it got there by surviving the two decades when Alberta craft beer was not a thing anybody believed in.

A brilliantly progressive hybrid brewery and soda maker. They consistently push the envelope on modern styles in Alberta.

Ed McNally started Big Rock in 1985 specifically to give Albertans something other than macro pale lager. Western Canadian craft has a founding date and this is it.

A standout in Calgary's 'Barley Belt.' They bring intense, juicy New England IPAs and heavy fruit sours to the forefront.

The Secret 'Squatch: the hidden Sasquatch wasn't there on day one. In the early '90s, as market share slipped, a marketer noticed drinkers loved hunting the 'hidden rabbits' on Molson Old Style — so…

A Bavarian brewery that happens to be in the Alberta foothills — Hefe, Pils, Weizenbock, Radler, and an Alkoholfrei sitting in the core range rather than tacked on as an afterthought. Reinheitsgebot…

Fernie Brewing is what happens when a family barn is allowed to keep growing for twenty years. Started by the Pask family in 2003 on their own farm, moved into a purpose-built plant on Highway 3 in…

The only commercial brewery in the Northwest Territories, and the first ever established in the territory. Everything that goes into the beer — grain, hops, cans — is hauled thousands of kilometres…

Lundbreck is a village of a few hundred people on Highway 3, minutes from Lundbreck Falls, at the point where the mountains hand over to ranch country. Oldman River Brewing has been pouring there…

The benchmark of bitterness. Vinnie Cilurzo is widely credited with inventing the modern Double IPA in 1994. Pliny the Elder (first brewed 1999) became an instant cult classic; the brewery's…

The spark of a revolution. Before Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, American beer was almost entirely light, flavorless lager. Grossman's aggressive use of the then-experimental Cascade hop — piney, citrusy —…

In 1874 the North-West Mounted Police marched west and built a fort to shut down the illegal whisky trade that was wrecking the southern Alberta plains. A hundred and fifty years later there is a…

Homebrew champions who went pro and immediately started winning national awards for wild fermentation. Calgary got a serious brewery almost overnight.

Opening a taproom in the spring of 2020 was, on paper, the worst timing in modern brewing. Indoor service was banned before they could use it, so The Pass Beer Co. started life as a pick-up window…

Two homebrewers in a backyard shed who then went and got Alberta's minimum production law changed. They rewrote the rules to make their own brewery legal.

A Calgary institution from 1996, acquired by Sleeman — and so Sapporo — in 2019. Another Alberta independent that is not one anymore.

Winnipeg craft, a decade too early. Agassiz brewed in Winnipeg from 1998 until 2002. The brand carried on until 2010, but under contract elsewhere — so the brewery entity ends at 2002 rather than…

Opened in 2016 by Alex Horner and childhood friends, and one of the Barley Belt's fastest risers at around 3,000 hectolitres a year. Then on 30 January 2020 Labatt bought it, and Calgary's craft…

The largest brewer in Canada, and not Canadian. Labatt has been brewing in London, Ontario since 1847 — older than the country it sells to — and produced the beer that was Canada's best-selling for…

Canada's northernmost commercial brewery, and the only one in a territory covering a fifth of the country. There is no road to Iqaluit. Every sack of malt, every keg gasket and every replacement part…

The largest brewer on earth, and a portfolio that reads as a list of things it could not become. American Ale lasted three years. Golden Wheat lasted three. Oculto lasted two. Prohibition Brew, the…

A nano-brewpub that opened at 505 13th Street in February 2013, run by Derrell and Janice Winowich, sharing a name with an 1888 brewery in the same town and connected to it in no other way. The…

Copper kettles and local spring water made Creemore an early argument that lager could be craft. Molson Coors bought it in 2005.

A world-benchmark brewery that still runs its original Montreal brewpub. Péché Mortel — an imperial coffee stout brewed with fair-trade coffee — became a global reference point for the style long…

Undisputed masters of barrel-aging and crisp West Coast IPAs, operating under the Duvel Moortgat conglomerate.

The white whale — with an ownership twist. CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout) began as a taproom-only experiment aged in bourbon barrels that had previously held maple syrup, and became one of the most…

Read the list and you have read a map of Vancouver: Brockton, English Bay, Kitsilano, Cypress, Spanish Banks, False Creek, Pemberton, the Sunshine Coast. Every beer is a place you can stand in, which…

Known for aggressive West Coast IPAs and highly irreverent branding, fully acquired by Heineken in 2017.

A winery and nano-brewery on Main Street in Wedowee, opened in 2021 by Scott and Brooke Bayliss. It makes both, which is why it is in this archive at all — the current site advertises brewery…

The most useful correction in this archive is also the simplest: John Molson never brewed Molson Canadian. The brewery dates to 1786; the flagship launched in 1959, a hundred and seventy-three years…

Once the most aggressively independent voice in craft beer, famous for Arrogant Bastard before selling to Sapporo in 2022.

Black Tuesday and a barrel programme most breweries could not staff, sold to Castanea Partners in 2017. A private equity firm buys a return, not a beer — which is a different relationship to a…

Minimalist, design-forward aesthetics meet flawlessly executed ales. A beautifully crisp and clean Vancouver experience.

Angry Hen Brewing pours in Kaslo, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Bad Dog Brewing pours in Sooke, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Copper Brewing Co. pours in Kelowna, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Fisher Peak Brewing pours in Cranbrook, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Manitoba's first all-female and 2SLGBTQ+ owned and operated brewery, and an absolute breath of fresh air. Crisp traditional lagers balanced against wildly creative sours, anchoring the West Broadway…

Grey Fox Brewing pours in Kelowna, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Fifteen beers in the core range, which is unfashionably many, and not one of them a hazy chasing a trend — a Dortmunder, a Czech half-dark, an Irish stout, a British ale. Sean Hoyne brewed in…

Kettle River Brewing Co. pours in Kelowna, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Housed in a gorgeous turn-of-the-century brick building, LBJ proved that focusing deeply on a single flagship icon — 1919 Pale Ale — while perfecting European styles could conquer a market.

Independent in Revelstoke since 1996, in a mountain town of eight thousand people. That is a small base to build a brewery on.

Small Gods Brewing pours in Sidney, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

The beautiful disaster that started the haze craze. Heady Topper is widely credited as the spark for the New England IPA. When Tropical Storm Irene flooded the original brewpub in 2011, the Kimmichs…

Tin Whistle Brewing pours in Penticton, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Torque is woven into Winnipeg's sports and neighbourhood culture. A reliable, unpretentious core lineup that lives in backyard coolers across the province.

They built a Belgian brewing tradition in Quebec from nothing in 1990, then sold to Sleeman in 2004 and on to Sapporo. The beers are still exceptional. The ownership is Japanese.

Wild North Brewing Co pours in Creston, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Seaweed, saltwater and island herbs on the Magdalen Islands. Terroir gets talked about constantly in beer and demonstrated almost never.

Independent in Oshawa since 2014 — a working city that mostly gets skipped on the way to somewhere else.

Boneshaker is the one that carried them — an unfiltered IPA at a time when Toronto lager was the safe bet — and it has since spawned a Hazy Eclipse and a Juicy Haze of its own. Bicycles and space…

A converted farm that serves as a sanctuary for hop-heads. It’s an essential destination for hyper-fresh, soft New England IPAs.

A Black-owned Tuscaloosa brewery, opened in the autumn of 2015 by Jeremiah and Jeremy Donald and closed in the summer of 2018. Good Beer Hunting documented Jeremiah Donald as co-founder and…

Barkerville Brewing pours in Quesnel, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Independent brewing in Amos since 1999, deep in Abitibi. Staying independent is easier when you are seven hours from the nearest big market, and much harder to fund.

The legendary creators behind Two Hearted Ale and Oberon, now merged operationally with New Belgium under Kirin.

A Toronto brewery that files its wild ales like vintages — Intermodal is a three-year spontaneous blend, Motley Cru changes fruit each year, and the Old Primeval stouts are named for the barrel they…

The modern one, sharing a name with an 1889 brewery it has no connection to whatsoever. At 3118 Third Avenue South, with John Zanteson as brewmaster, making the Red Mountain beers and…

Thirteen years, from a 2011 homebrewing project to a permanent closure on 10 May 2026. It opened on University Boulevard in November 2013, in a former barbershop the founders built out themselves.…

Operating 'The Monolith,' a highly advanced, purpose-built facility dedicated entirely to spontaneous fermentation and wild ales.

Barrel-aging and sours out of Lacombe, which is not where anyone expects a serious cellar programme. Central Alberta got one anyway.

Witch's Hair, Captain Howdy, Guilty Remnant, Hellflower — a Toronto brewery naming beers like a horror double bill, then quietly running one of the larger non-alcoholic lines in Canadian craft. Three…

The godfather of the modern BC tasting room. Their experimental, small-batch releases make every visit unique.

Captain's Log, Cosmic, Cruising Through the Galaxy, First Light — an Oakville brewery that decided on space and never wavered. Nine beers, all core, no seasonal churn: a lineup you could learn once…

Red Racer's pin-up cyclist has been on British Columbia shelves long enough to be furniture, and the brand now stretches across four IPAs and two lagers. Central City also distils, which is why the…

The Hamilton brewery that turned its labels into a rotating gallery — every can carries a different artist or musician, so the packaging is the point and the beer has to keep up. It does: eleven core…

Independent in Etobicoke since 1997, quietly, through every boom and shakeout since.

A fiercely dedicated Belgian-style sanctuary. They ignore the IPA craze to sweep national awards with world-class ales.

Fat Tug did more to define what a British Columbia IPA tastes like than any marketing ever managed, and Naughty Hildegard is named for the twelfth-century abbess who first wrote down that hops…

Hamilton's other art-forward brewery, and the one publishing an ABV for everything on the board. The Chuggy line is the interesting move — four fruit versions of a 2% 'extra light beer', which is a…

They grow their own barley and hops on the Manitoba prairie. Estate brewing is claimed often and actually done almost nowhere.

Raving Loops of Computer Music. 12 Minutes to Destiny. Velvet Bubble Lord. Sparklepuff. A Barrie brewery that has never once reached for a sensible name, and somewhere in there is a Chocolate…

A Delta farm-field brewery that built its name on saison and sour at a time when British Columbia wanted IPA, and then quietly got very good at pilsner too — including one brewed with oysters.…

On the Halifax seaport since 1997, back when East Coast craft was a handful of people arguing that Atlantic Canada would drink something other than macro lager.

Czech lager and Japanese ingredients in Toronto's east end, which sounds like a gimmick until you see the beer names: Desítka and Tmavý Ležák are Czech pub measures, Kakkō and Kawasemi are birds, and…

One of Ontario's original craft breweries, still independent, and now brewing more aggressively than breweries a third its age. Longevity did not make it cautious.

Manitoba's craft trailblazer, founded 2006, and the brewery every other one in this province followed. It closed in May 2025 — down from fourteen staff to two, killed by what one industry executive…

Repeatedly named the best brewery in the world, producing exquisite farmhouse ales on remote ancestral land.

Eephus is a junk pitch thrown so slowly it insults the batter. Oppo is hitting to the opposite field, a squeeze play scores a runner by bunting, and the Mendoza Line is the batting average below…

Birmingham's first brewpub, and it existed because the law changed: Alabama's Brewpub Act passed in 1992 and Magic City opened on 10 March 1995, founded by Sam Casto and Michael Wajciechowski. It…

Mount Arrowsmith Brewing pours in Parksville, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Mad Tom and Major Tom, Detour and Tread Lightly — cottage-country beer named for the going rather than the arriving. Muskoka has been Ontario's summer-weekend brewery since 1996, and Detour, a…

Naughty Neighbour is the one that travels — a pale ale that became Burlington's export to every Ontario fridge — but the core range now runs to a lager, a sour, a dark and a pink lemonade beer, which…

Famous for their aggressive feline branding while absolutely dominating the hazy double IPA market in Quebec City.

A highly aesthetic, moody masterpiece in Winnipeg. They offer an award-winning, premium Belgian experience on the prairies.

Chad Marchand and John Minton opened in December 2019 at 656 St. Louis Street and built the place around Mobile itself — local identity, live music, room for people to be in. Three and a half years…

A working farm brewery on the Sunshine Coast, growing hops on site. Farm-based brewing is romantic in theory and relentless in practice.

They built their own malthouse, which almost no brewery does. Controlling your own malt supply is a decade-long commitment, not a marketing line.

Halifax's longest-running independent, still making ESB. Traditional British ale is the least fashionable thing a brewery can do and the hardest to do badly.

A brewery named after the railways, whose flagship is named after what a railway did to the most famous animal on earth. Jumbo gave English the word for anything enormous, and St. Thomas has spent…

A brewery documented through city council minutes and an SEC filing, which is an unusual pair. Riverside's council recorded Orange Empire Brewing Company seeking economic-development assistance in…

High rotation and experimental dark beer in Muskoka — cottage country, where most breweries would settle for a summer patio lager.

Artists and musicians building a following on unpretentious core beers. Not every brewery needs a barrel programme to matter.

Opened in December 2017 at 600 Government Street and sold in May 2021 to an out-of-state brewery, with Serda's own operations ending on 1 June. The site did not stop making beer — it became Oyster…

A globally renowned, 100% barrel-aged brewery whose imperial stouts and wild ales fetch astronomical prices on the secondary market.

Built directly into a limestone hill, brewing hyper-local lagers and pale ales with 100% Ontario-grown malts.

English styles on Pembina Highway, at a moment when almost nobody else in the province was brewing them. The Winnipeg Free Press reported the shutdown in March 2024, opening the run of Manitoba…

A West Coast pioneer blending stunning mask art with old-world styles. Their foeder-aged sours are a sophisticated Vancouver treat.

A rural, family-owned East Coast powerhouse. A perfect stop for travelers hunting down nationally awarded lagers and sours.

Aggressive, metal-inspired, and heavily hyped. This is the premier spot in Ontario for massive pastry stouts and hazy IPAs.

A Midwest juggernaut whose highly coveted barrel-aged stouts trade for exorbitant sums on the secondary market.

Independent in Powell River since 2012, in a coastal town reachable only by ferry. Logistics alone make this hard.

The undisputed kings of the hazy New England IPA, operating on a hyper-successful direct-to-consumer model.

It was never a Sonora brewery to begin with. Henry Schuler brewed at Bensonville, a hamlet south of Columbia, from at least 1866 — a legal notice fixes his brewery in township no. 2 — and ran depots…

Founded as Brick Brewing in 1984 — the first new brewery in Ontario in decades, and the one that made the others look possible.

Canada's oldest independently owned microbrewery, brewing in Guelph since 1985 and never sold. Four decades of turning down offers.

Lager, hazy IPA and spirits on the same rural Ontario acreage. Farm-based production is the oldest model in brewing and one of the hardest to run now.

The brewery that kicked off Port Moody's Brewers Row. Grabbing their dominant 'Play Dead' IPA is a local rite of passage.

100 Acre Brewing Company pours in Keene, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Heavy metal pioneers of the extreme craft movement, globally famous for their legendary Dark Lord Day release festival.

Hawaii pays freight on every ingredient and every can. That a brewery this size runs multiple taprooms on Oahu says more than any medal would.

The brewery that started American craft beer, and then became its most public casualty. Fritz Maytag bought a failing Anchor in 1965 and revived Steam Beer — a genuinely American style, born of San…

Anderson Craft Ales pours in London, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Upstairs on Banff Avenue, pouring to an audience from everywhere. Operated by Bearhill Brewing, which also runs Jasper Brewing — one company holding both national park towns.

Barn Hammer is a foundational pillar of Winnipeg's Wall Street industrial craft corridor. Their commitment to nailing classic malt-forward styles — especially Grandpa's Sweater — makes them an…

One of the Plateau's originals — Cascadian darks and brown ales from before the hazy era.

Small, experimental and unusually well-regarded by other brewers — Bent Stick built its name on things other people wouldn't try.

Beyond the Pale Brewing Co. pours in Ottawa, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Organic, farm-brewed, on the shore of the Bras d'Or Lake at the entrance to the Cabot Trail. Cape Breton's brewery, and one of the few in Canada growing its own hops on the property it pours on.

A masterpiece of local heritage architecture — built with thousands of bricks reclaimed from local historic demolition. Black Wheat injects new life into Brandon's Westman craft scene.

A Long Island staple known for their Toasted Lager, dumped by AB InBev and snapped up by Tilray in 2023.

Bobcaygeon Brewing Company pours in Peterborough, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

RPM IPA, and a 2021 sale to Deschutes — another Bend brewery, four miles up the road. Two independents in one town, one now owning the other. Calling that a macro buyout would erase the only…

Shelburne is a Loyalist port that has been quietly shrinking for two centuries, and Boxing Rock is one of the reasons people stop on the way down the South Shore.

Ten Peaks in the glass and the Three Sisters out the window. Nearly every beer here is a place — the Valley of the Ten Peaks, the Highline trail, the Bow River, Railway Avenue, and Georgetown, which…

Famous nationwide for their Jai Alai IPA, they were also absorbed by Monster Energy during the massive CANarchy acquisition.

Inglewood's living room. Astroturf, mismatched furniture, dogs everywhere, and a Vanilla Cappuccino Porter that turned into a Calgary institution.

An enormous destination farm brewery dropped into Huron County farmland, built at a scale that only makes sense if you intend to be the reason people drive out.

Took over the Portland Street space Brightwood Brewery built, keeping a neighbourhood brewery alive on a street that would otherwise have lost one.

If you want boundary-pushing adjunct stouts and ultra-fresh hop experiments in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, Devil May Care is the sanctuary. They never play it safe.

The pioneers of extreme, culinary-ingredient brewing, now merged into the massive Boston Beer Co. portfolio.

Dominion City Brewing Co. pours in Ottawa, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Taylor DeBoer and Patrick Small held their grand opening at 2616 Third Avenue South on 22 October 2016, and later moved to 3501 First Avenue South. Ghost Train closed temporarily in July 2024 and was…

The monumental 2011 acquisition that sparked the modern craft buyout wave, still famous for their Bourbon County Stout.

Henderson Brewing Co. pours in Toronto, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Bringing dedicated craft brewing directly to Winkler, Heritage Farms bridges rural agricultural pride with clean, accessible beer.

A Junction brewpub from 2012, back when the Junction going wet at all was the news. Indie Alehouse has stayed stubbornly itself while Dundas West gentrified around it.

The ultimate destination on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. A fresh IPA on that rooftop patio with the lake breeze coming in is a quintessential Manitoba rite of passage.

Canada's first brewery inside a national park, and still the place everyone ends up after a day on the Icefields Parkway. Bearhill Brewing operates it alongside Banff Ave.

Kilter mastered the modern hype-beer aesthetic in Winnipeg. Fruit-forward slushy sours and hop bombs that are visually stunning and surgically balanced.

Land & Sea Brewing pours in Comox, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Live music and a copper amber, in a city that has always supported a room where a band can actually play.

Low Life is a playground for funk and acidity. If you're tired of clean IPAs and want complex, barrel-aged, mixed-culture sour work, this is the mecca.

A farm brewery in the Annapolis Valley running ten rotating taps and collaborating with the cideries next door — the Valley grows apples and barley, and Lunn's Mill uses both.

A James Street North brewpub in the middle of Hamilton's long argument with itself about what the city is becoming. The kitchen is as much the point as the beer.

Heavy Belgian ales, brewed hard, with no interest in being acquired. Dominus Vobiscum is a beer that assumes you are paying attention.

Belgians and blueberry stouts on the shore of Lac-Saint-Jean, where the blueberry is a regional identity rather than an adjunct.

Traditional farmhouse beer at the top of Lac-Saint-Jean, brewing organic on their own grain.

NEIPAs in a gold-mining town, which is a sentence that would have made no sense twenty years ago.

Coastal stouts and seaweed beer on the Côte-Nord — genuinely maritime brewing, not a marketing angle.

Mighty Peace Brewing pours in Fort St. John, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Built the Distillery District's craft identity, then sold to Labatt in 2015. The neighbourhood branding survived the sale intact, which was rather the point.

A foundational pillar of Milwaukee brewing history, now fully integrated into the massive Molson Coors empire.

Mountainview Brewing pours in Hope, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

New Ontario Brewing Co. pours in North Bay, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Named for the locks on the Shubenacadie Canal, the 19th-century attempt to cut a waterway clean across Nova Scotia. Dartmouth has always been the working half of the harbour, and Nine Locks reads…

Bringing quality independent craft beer to the Parkland region, Obsolete is a vital regional anchor that proves great beer belongs far beyond the perimeter highway.

A modern lounge more than a taproom — Odd Company bet that Edmonton wanted somewhere to sit properly.

A Barley Belt taproom with a proper kitchen behind it, brewing everything from Japanese-inspired rice ales to straight-ahead lager.

OGC nails the holy trinity of a great brewpub: real food from the kitchen, an inviting neighbourhood atmosphere, and award-winning beer that never misses.

Oxus is an unsung hero of clean brewing technique — crisp, traditional European lagers and ambers that satisfy purists and convert macro drinkers. It also hosts other people's brands, making it…

Prince Edward County built a wine tourism economy and then discovered people also wanted beer. Parsons farms for it.

An Exchange District brewpub that helped make downtown Winnipeg somewhere you would go for beer, with a full brewery on site rather than a borrowed tap list. The Winnipeg Free Press reported its…

Prince Eddy's Brewing Co. pours in Picton, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Royal City Brewing Co. pours in Guelph, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

On the main street of a town famous for three churches in a row, brewing beer and cider for a coastline that fills with tourists every July and empties every October.

Brent Cole and Daniel Yant released their first beer around 2013, then moved into Yellowhammer's former brewery and bought much of its equipment — a brewery furnished by its predecessor. Straight to…

An acclaimed operation producing some of the most exquisite, world-renowned mixed-fermentation farmhouse ales in America.

Named for the mountain range where the Red Deer River starts. Central Alberta's barley country, brewing with it deliberately.

Alongside Black Wheat, Section 6 turned Brandon into a legitimate craft beer destination, with clean modern hop profiles for western Manitoba beer geeks.

Dog-friendly by design in a town where everyone has one. Canmore's second brewery, and the one you can bring the whole trailhead crew to.

Sherbrooke's brewpub in the old train depot — the Estrie's most reliable pint.

Housed in a converted church in Virgil, which makes the Niagara wine-tour crowd stop for beer without feeling like they've broken theme.

Named for the peninsula lying across Thunder Bay's horizon. Northwestern Ontario is closer to Winnipeg than Toronto, and the beer scene reflects that independence.

Sons of Kent Brewing Co. pours in Chatham, Ontario. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Sookram's packs enormous personality into a cozy South Osborne footprint. Desert Island IPA and Cult Classic Pilsner are masterclasses in balance and drinkability.

Named for the Superstack, the smelter chimney that defined Sudbury's skyline for fifty years. Northern Ontario industrial identity, undisguised.

They completely redefined the hazy IPA standard in Western Canada. A visit to their Vancouver taproom is an absolute must.

A rural brasserie artisanale in Kamouraska, smoked stouts and a view of the river.

Hintonburg's brewery, and one of the reasons Wellington West became a place you'd cross Ottawa for.

A south-side brewery with a real kitchen, and a white stout that gets ordered mostly out of curiosity and repeated out of loyalty.

TCB operates on a grand scale without losing its soul. The Kenaston taproom is a sprawling community hub where families, sports fans and beer nerds happily coexist.

A massive cornerstone of the New England IPA movement, brewing thick, heavily dry-hopped ales and decadent stouts.

Deep in Acadian Yarmouth County, brewing a smoked rauchbier named for the kiack — the local word for gaspereau. Beer that could not have come from anywhere else.

Vice & Virtue Brewing pours in Kelowna, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Brewing again in Hiram Walker's old company town, in a building that was part of the original distillery estate. Windsor's beer history is a Prohibition history, same as the Crowsnest — just pointed…

Ottawa Valley whitewater country — a brewery built for people coming off the river, which is a specific and reliable kind of thirst.

The modern taproom Whitehorse was missing, run by Marko and Meghan Marjanovic since 2015. Notably, they run CO2 reclamation — capturing fermentation gas rather than buying it in, which matters more…

4 Mile Brewing pours in Victoria, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Abandoned Rail Brewing Co pours in Penticton, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Brewing in Halifax since 1820, which makes it older than Canada by forty-seven years, and Alexander Keith himself was three times mayor of the city. Nova Scotians drink it on his birthday. The…

World-famous for incredibly thick, decadent, dessert-inspired imperial stouts that draw massive crowds for their release weeks.

Backcountry Brewing pours in Squamish, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Backroads Brewing Company pours in Nelson, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Barley Mill Brew Pub pours in Penticton, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Employee-owned and certified organic, two hard commitments held for sixteen years, before merging with Steam Whistle in 2022 — itself an independent Canadian brewery. Reading that as a macro buyout…

The highest brewpub in Hawaii, run by the man who first brewed for Maui. Elevation changes how beer behaves, and he chose to deal with that on purpose.

For a long time this record held one line of evidence: an April 1891 Inyo Independent advertisement for a first-class brewery with a grove for outdoor parties, run by L. Munzinger & Co. Then a…

Brass Monkey Taproom pours in Victoria, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

A Colorado classic originally bought by AB InBev, then offloaded to Tilray Brands in a massive 2023 portfolio purge.

Cannery Brewing pours in Penticton, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Canuck Empire Brewing Co pours in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Thomas Carling, a Yorkshire farmer turned soldier, started brewing in London, Ontario in 1840 — seven years before Labatt set up in the same town, which made one small Ontario city the birthplace of…

Two Canadian brewing names merged into one in 1930, then folded into Molson in 1989. Consolidation is the actual history of Canadian beer.

Category 12 Brewing pours in Victoria, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

A hop-forward powerhouse that expanded its massive portfolio of IPAs and sour ales by acquiring The Rare Barrel in 2022.

An Alabama corporation formed on 17 December 1888 for the business of a brewery, capitalised at $100,000 — serious money for a brewery on the Georgia line. Its 1889 advertisements place the plant…

Checkerhead Brewing pours in Shirley, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

The Rocky Mountain giant operating the absolute largest single-site brewery in the world out of Golden, Colorado.

Deadfall Brewing Company pours in Prince George, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

A one-man nano operation doing oak-fermented, bottle-conditioned mixed-culture ales — 60 degrees north, skipping pale ales and lagers entirely to make the most patient beer in the territory. There is…

The most cautionary story in Canadian brewing, and it took eight weeks. Dow was Quebec's dominant beer for most of two centuries when, in 1966, Quebec City hospitals began admitting middle-aged men —…

An arcade in a brewery, or the other way round. Eighty-Eight leans hard into the fun and backs it with a genuinely broad tap list.

A Seattle staple famously known for Space Dust IPA, controversially bought out by AB InBev in 2015.

Firehall Brewery pours in Oliver, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Fox Mountain Brewing Co pours in Williams Lake, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Maple Bacon Coffee Porter was either the beginning of pastry beer or the moment it went too far, depending who you ask. Constellation bought them in 2017, which settled the commercial argument if not…

Giant's Head Brewing pours in Summerland, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Built to be the definitive craft beer face of Los Angeles, aggressively expanding before selling to AB InBev in 2015.

Home of Corona and Modelo. AB InBev owns it globally, but the US rights were sold off permanently — which is why Constellation prints money.

Herald Street Brew Works pours in Victoria, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

A Star Wars-themed staple of the Miami scene, famous nationwide for their extreme and heavily fruited Florida Weisse sours.

Kernville has under two thousand residents and produced a double IPA people drove hours into the mountains to buy. Single-hop showcases were rare in 2003; this was one of the beers that proved the…

Their Lahaina production facility was destroyed in the 2023 wildfires and they reopened in Wailea. Rebuilding is not a marketing story — it is just what they did.

A Quebec City co-operative brewing independently since 1995 — one of the older continuous craft operations in the province.

Hamilton's discount brewer, taken over by Labatt in 2007. Competing on price works right up until the giant decides to buy the problem.

Lakesider Brewing Co. pours in West Kelowna, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Foraged hibiscus, pikake and local honey. Island-inspired is a phrase most breweries use loosely; here it describes the actual ingredient list.

Oak-aged sours and a serious reputation, sold to Molson Coors in 2017. Quebec drinkers took that one personally, and the beer was never the reason why.

It bought the former Birmingham Brewing facility on Third Avenue around 1998 and ran it as a contract operation, producing Vulcan beer and acquiring the Mad Monk brands in spring 1999. By 2000 a…

Luppolo Brewing Company pours in Vancouver, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Connie Parks and Steve Vandervort opened Miners Alley in September 2014, with Vandervort as brewmaster, per the Chico News & Review. Current brewery databases classify it as no longer in business and…

A serious industrial brewery — designed by August Maritzen, the architect whose plants stood in brewing cities across America — at North Water and Adams streets from 1891. Its history is really the…

Neighbourhood Brewing pours in Penticton, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Certified organic since 1991, which in the Kootenays is less a marketing position than the local default. Silver King and Valhalla are the mountains above the town; Bent Pole and Joyride are what you…

Colorado pioneers of wind-powered brewing and Fat Tire, now operating under Kirin's global craft division.

Crowd-funded and tied to Hawaiian agriculture — dragonfruit, lilikoi, pineapple grown locally rather than imported as flavouring. The supply chain is the mission.

The other half of a family story. Susannah Oland's brewing enterprise, founded in 1867, eventually split between branches — one line carried on to Saint John and became Moosehead, still family-owned…

The legendary first craft brewery to put their beer in a can, now owned by Monster Energy following the CANarchy buyout.

Dominating the East Coast hype scene, famous for extreme hop saturation and high-profile industry collaborations.

Over Time Beer Works pours in Kimberley, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Canada's longest-running independently owned brewery, in Prince George since 1957. Nobody has managed to buy it, and plenty have tried.

Post & Row Brewing Co. pours in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Powell Brewery pours in Vancouver, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Radium Brewing pours in Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Railside Brewing pours in Kelowna, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Red Bird Brewing pours in Kelowna, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

A community taproom in the middle of the province, on the Red Deer ale trail that nobody outside Alberta has heard of and everybody in it has driven.

Rendezvous is the social hub for Morden and the Pembina Valley, anchoring southern Manitoba with fresh local brews and warm hospitality.

Oliver Allen opened in May 1891, and by 1894 the Revelstoke Museum records the brewery being described as the largest of its kind in the Kootenays — making ales, porter and lager, all three, in a…

Revystoked Brewing Company pours in Revelstoke, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Rossland Beer Company pours in Rossland, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Salt Spring Brewing Co. pours in Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Shaketown Brewing pours in North Vancouver, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Sherwood Mountain Brewhouse pours in Terrace, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Named for the way Collingwood's shipyard used to put boats in the water — sideways. The town's industrial memory in a glass.

Re-established in 1988 from an 1851 family recipe book, then sold to Sapporo in 2006. The heritage is genuine and the owner is in Tokyo.

Smithers Brewing Company pours in Smithers, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Sooke Oceanside Brewery pours in Sooke, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Strathcona Beer Co. pours in Vancouver, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

The undeniable anchor of the Southeast craft scene, acquired by Canadian cannabis and beverage giant Tilray in 2020.

A dominant Southeast brand recently offloaded by Molson Coors and acquired by Tilray Brands.

The Hatching Post pours in West Kelowna, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Trench Brewing & Distilling pours in Prince George, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Thirteen years, the longest run of Birmingham's modern breweries in this archive and one of the most recent endings anywhere in it. TrimTab's own store puts beer production from 2013; its own site…

Two Peaks Brewing pours in Kitimat, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Ucluelet Brewing Company pours in Ucluelet, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Victoria's first brewery and the one that outlasted everything else: ninety-six years under three names. It opened in 1858, the year the Fraser River gold rush turned a Hudson's Bay fort into a port…

Grew from one Waikiki pub to multiple locations on an approachable core lineup. Not every brewery is chasing the rare list, and the ones that aren't tend to survive.

Whistle Buoy Brewing Co. pours in Victoria, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.